Stress Management

Stress Management – Stress Relief.

Our Well-Being and ability to manage Stress is about taking charge of the emotional, physical, environmental and social aspects of our lives including our professional work and personal relationships with family, friends and colleagues. Most importantly is how to balance of all of these factors.

Managing stress can only truly begin once we have identified the stressors that are a part of our daily life. This can be the first hurdle we need to overcome. Identifying the areas of life which are the triggers of stress can be difficult for many of us to see, let alone begin to manage. Stress has many faces e.g. caring for an elderly parent, our work, a difficult or painful relationship, or because of an illness like Cancer.

There can also be positive stress within our life – also known as Eustress, which is seen as a beneficial form of stress whereby we can see events within life as Challenges as opposed to Threats. But if we do not have Balance within our life, this positive stress can easily become coupled with negative stress. An example of positive stress is getting a promotion – once the initial elation has faded away, the reality of the responsibility or pressure that will come with the new job can also bring negative stress into our lives. Many of us in modern life can be negatively affected by this swing from “High to Low”. The seeming Low of the perceived drudgery of the daily grind of our working week, to the perceived High of our days off, and the possible social engagements at the weekends.

We may choose to avoid identifying and dealing with the causes of stress than facing and dealing with them for obvious reasons:

5. Negative conditioning – “This is the best it can be, it won’t get any better”

The list will be endless, the above are mere examples of negative thought patterns which can sabotage our move towards Wellbeing and the ability to positively manage stress within our lives.

What can I do to help manage Stress in my Life?

If you are reading this perhaps you are seeking to improve the quality of your life and gain relief from Stress. What causes us stress varies within each individual. Below are a few examples of what you can do to take more control and win the the battle over stress, and gain simple tools and techniques to help you balance your life.

1. Pamper Yourself – Attend a Well-Being or Stress management workshop, go for a massage or try complementary therapies like Reiki or Reflexology. Or simply just go out for lunch and spend time on your own – Your Worth It.

2. Calm your Mind – Try Meditation or a Yoga Class, or take up Tai chi. These eastern forms of mindfulness and movement are a wonderful way to release stress from our lives, and help gain a much more positive perspective on life. They are also an effective way to help you Breathe properly as many clinical tests have shown that when we are stressed we breathe incorrectly. Any method that helps us work to improve our breath can only bring benefits.

3. Get Physical – Start jogging, or go for a regular walk, visit your local gym. Exercise is a great way to feel good, it releases all those positive endorphins which are mother nature’s way of making us feel good.

4. Community – Become a volunteer or join a local community group who get together at weekends and during free time to put a little back into your community by planting trees and getting stuck into cleaning up the local area, or even just volunteering to offer your services to the elderly, homeless or a local charity. Or take up Take up Gardening. It is a wonderful way to spend time, and that earthy approach helps to really ground us. If you haven’t got a garden, start with a window box, or community garden project, you never know where it could lead. It’s amazing the feeling of well-being we can gain from just helping someone in need and becoming involved with our community.

5. Speak to a friend or family member – About the stress in your life, ask them to tell you of their own experiences with stress. Sometimes it does us as much good to listen as it does to talk.

There is a limitless list of things we can do to make ourselves feel less stressed.

We have produced a library of MP3 audio files for Download via Itunes and Amazon of Guided Relaxation Visualisations, and Yoga Meditation Music to help you relax and unwind – Your Worth it!